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FOL KEYSTONE 



PROCEEDINGS. 

 EIGHTEENTH SESSION, 1885—1886. 



October 13th, 1885. 



The opening meeting was held in the Council Chamber, at the 

 Town Hall. In spite of the heavy rain, the attendance was large. 

 The following paper written for a Field Day, which had been pre- 

 ^i^ented by bad weather, was read by the President, Dr. PitzGerald: — 



ON ANTS. 



There is perhaps no insect, I had almost said no animal, about 

 which so much has been written, and so many diverse opinions 

 held, as the Ant. While some authorities extol its intelligence and 

 wonderful instinct, amounting almost to reason, others abuse it as 

 being stupid, blundering, unequal to cope with the slightest diffi- 

 culty, and unable to see beyond the end of its antennae. I must 

 confess that any casual observer who has watched the elaborate 

 perverseness with which an average Ant endeavours to haul some, 

 quite useless, object of double its size, nowhere, by the longest and 

 most impracticable route, will be inclined to adopt this latter view. 

 Now I do not mean to cite Mark Twain as being absolutely in the 



